Hi all,

I have quite a bit of experience in designing sites over the last few years. I am however going into new teritory with the one I am currently working on.

By this I mean I expect to have thousands of users almost instantly to take part in something that I won't go into great detail about (it is not an adult site!). Anyway thse users will be interacting with a database through ASP.

What I have no idea on is how much bandwidth I am going to need, therefore I don't really know which host to go with. Obviously I need a host which allows ASP...but its the bandwidth problem which is getting to me.

What I ideally need is to start off with lowish bandwidth, but to be able to pay a reasonable amount if I go over the limit. I don't want to start paying for high bandwidth that I won't use.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas or advice.

Thanks

Jon Heath

well if you are going to have thousands of users almost instantly, then I would recomend that you start off with a plan that has a decent amount of bandwidth....

I would also recommend that you contact the host(s) that you are interested in and ask them about upgrading plans, so that you can upgrade if necessary........Also check their prices for excess bandwidth usage (is it done in blocks or by the gig etc etc) Find a host with decent excess bandwidth charges and you should be fine......

Thanks for the reply.

Any company suggestions for me to look at without trailing through them all?

Depending on how much traffic you expect from the word "go", you might need to get a dedicated server. Furthermore, I would recommend -- if possible -- using PHP and MySQL instead of ASP. Not only is PHP easier, it's also faster and therefore should save you money if you go for a shared host.

About recommending hosts... I think if we had your budget, people could come up with some suggestions.

As cheap as possible I guess! Dealing with the traffic expected is all new too me, so you tell me what I should be paying.

For all I know I could go thru 10gb bandwidth a month or 50gb...hence my problem. I have no experience dealing with something like this.

As for PHP....well ASP is my forte and PHP isn't so thats really out of the question unfortunately.